Wow! Whereas, The Wall Street Journal reported China's economy expanded at 7.4% in 2014 — and that was the slowest in decades! But Bloomberg also reports that it could be much higher. China's economy has already overtaken the U.S. to be the world's largest economy — lifting 500,000 of their people into the middle-class. And by 2022, China could have over 630 million — while the U.S. middle-class continues to decline.

the deflator was revised from negative to positive 0.1%, and hence the change in current dollar GDP was only revised down by 0.2%, from 2.5% in the advance estimate to 2.3% in this estimate...the deflator for goods was revised from -5.3% to -4.9%, while the deflator for services was revised from 2.0% to 1.8%...current dollar spending for goods was actually $5.4 billion lower in the 4th quarter than in the 3rd..

price indexes for other components saw large revisions as well...dont know how common that is, since i hadnt paid that close attention to it until this quarter...

The article states that fraud at DI is only 0.04%. But when you go to the link that supports that number you find that it is 0.4%. So an extra zero was added to make it appear that fraud is not an issue.

.4% on the $147B of DI benefits comes to $600,000,000 a year. That seems like a lot of fraud to me, hardly the rounding error suggested here.

This billionaire Governor taxed the rich and increased the minimum wage -- Now, his State's economy is one of the best in the country: "It's official -- trickle-down economics is bunk. Minnesota has proven it once and for all. If you believe otherwise, you are wrong."

(* Interesting article, with some interesting links within -- such as the one about online voting.)

Mega-supply store Home Depot plans to add about 80,000 temporary workers for the spring season. At Home Depot, hiring occurs each spring when the company brings in temp workers for around three months. In this regard, it's no different than any other retailer, says Stephan Holmes, a Home Depot spokesman.http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/home-depot-goes-temp-worker-h...

He says he constantly begs his managers at Walmart for full-time work. He generally works around 28 hours a week, but can be assigned as few as 18. He supports his fiancée on an income that can be as little as $900 a month. After spending about $550 on rent, $65 on gas for his car, as well as paying for food, diapers, cellphone costs and insurance, he can rarely afford new clothes or recreation.

Walmart says about half of its hourly-wage workers work part time, and that percentage can be even higher at other retailers. In 2007, about 685,000 of a total of 19.2 million workers in the retail sector were involuntarily employed part time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2014, the number of involuntary part-time retail workers had more than doubled, to 1.4 million, even as the total number of retail workers declined to 18.9 million.

On February 25, 2015 the Subcommittee on Social Security will hold a hearing on Disability (POSTED ON Feb 18, 2015)

A list of witnesses will follow. Oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. However, any individual or organization may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.

DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:

ATTACH your submission as a Word document, in compliance with the formatting requirements by the close of business on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. For questions, or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202) 225-3625 or (202) 225-2610."

"Anything is fair game when the political establishment wants to pass major trade agreements like NAFTA or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. At such times we see respectable Washington types making pronouncements bearing so little relationship to reality they would cause Sarah Palin to cringe...It is only when the question is one of jobs for U.S. workers that the risk of such a rebellion becomes an unacceptable price. Finally the bad story that we are supposed to fear, “scuttling the entire project,” should arouse howls of derision everywhere. Wow, all those industry folks spent years trying to craft a deal that would boost their profits by circumventing laws and regulations in the U.S. and elsewhere, and now their efforts may prove pointless? Pass the handkerchief, I can’t hold back the tears."

That sentence was mis-worded and I changed it to say the article "suggests people should take their Social Security benefits early — at age 62 — so they can invest in bonds or the stock market." (I suppose if you had read that CBS article, you would have understood. But it's my fault, as I should have been more clear. Thanks for mentioning this.)

Also, as far as "subsequent information in this article is incorrect" -- can you please be more specific, as I would like to correct any mistakes. Thanks.

The Republican-controlled Congress needs to pass a war tax to, not only fund another new war, but also to put our young people into college — or to train them in other skills — and to also hire them for good-paying jobs for government infrastructure projects — like FDR did during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.

The rise of “independent contractors” is the most significant legal trend in the American workforce – contributing directly to low pay, irregular hours, and job insecurity. What makes them “independent contractors” is the mainly that the companies they work for say they are. So those companies don’t have to pick up the costs of having full-time employees. It’s become a race to the bottom. Once one business cuts costs by making its workers “independent contractors,” every other business in that industry has to do the same – or face shrinking profits and a dwindling share of the market ... They take these jobs because they can’t find better ones. And as the race to the bottom accelerates, they have fewer and fewer alternatives.

I agree that most "senior-citizen" groups like AARP etc. are front groups for insurance companies. But why do you not disclose that the Alliance for Retired Americans is a front group for the AFL/CIO? I do admit it takes great creativity to shoehorn a trade agreement into a senior-citizen issue.

(Most of the subsequent information in this article is incorrect, most obviously: People can take their social security benefits at 62. Why would CBS propose that?)